11 Facts About Leblanc process

Leblanc process was an early industrial process for making soda ash used throughout the 19th century, named after its inventor, Nicolas Leblanc.

The process gradually became obsolete after the development of the Solvay process.

Leblanc process was denied his prize money because of the French Revolution.

Leblanc process's contribution was the second step, in which a mixture of the salt cake and crushed limestone was reduced by heating with coal.

The first British soda works using the Leblanc process was built by the Losh family of iron founders at the Losh, Wilson and Bell works in Walker on the River Tyne in 1816, but steep British tariffs on salt production hindered the economics of the Leblanc process and kept such operations on a small scale until 1824.

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Leblanc process plants were quite damaging to the local environment.

The Leblanc process of generating salt cake from salt and sulfuric acid released hydrochloric acid gas, and because this acid was industrially useless in the early 19th century, it was simply vented into the atmosphere.

Leblanc process meant very unpleasant working conditions for the operators.

In 1861, the Belgian chemist Ernest Solvay developed a more direct Leblanc process for producing soda ash from salt and limestone through the use of ammonia.

Leblanc process producers were unable to compete with Solvay soda ash, and their soda ash production was effectively an adjunct to their still profitable production of chlorine, bleaching powder etc.

However, because of solubility of the bicarbonate, the Solvay process does not work for the manufacture of potassium carbonate, and the Leblanc process continued in limited use for its manufacture until much later.